What to expect from the Empire fall finale after episodes 7 and 8

With Hakeem, Jamal and Andre in trouble, what clues have the two most recent episodes of Empire left for what’s to come in the midseason finale?

The two episodes leading up to Empire‘s mid-season finale, “Slave to Memory,” have set an interesting stage for what is sure to be a knock down-drag out fight between the Lyons and the family we love to hate, the DuBois family.

“The Lady Doth Protest” — Purposeful Fluff

Episode 7, “The Lady Doth Protest,” is probably the closest we got to a filler episode this season, in the sense that very little movement happened plot-wise. The protest wasn’t all that interesting (although it was nice to finally hear Cookie give Porsha a genuine thank you and not allude to how stupid she thought Posha was). Warren being revealed as Diana’s nephew to Jamal was the most crucial thing to this episode, although the way it ended up happening wasn’t very realistic. Neither was the impact (or lack thereof) that it seemed to have on Jamal’s sobriety. As much as Jamal loved Warren, I find it hard to believe that a pep talk from Hakeem and revamped song is all it took to keep him from falling off the wagon.

The interesting part of this storyline is Warren and how he’s going to respond now that his secret is out. He has clearly fallen for Jamal and fallen out of line with the DuBois master plan. I don’t necessarily see him banding together with the Lyons, the DuBois are his blood after all but I know something interesting is going to come out of his guilt for hurting Jamal.

“Cupid Painted Blind”: Andre Takes Center Stage

“Cupid Painted Blind” rightly placed Andre at the forefront of the plot. As the only remaining son who hadn’t been targeted by the DuBois family, everyone has been watching Andre carefully and treating him with kid gloves — but it was clearly too little too late.

Officer Rose being a hallucination was definitely unexpected, but now looking back it makes perfect sense. No one in the Lyon family has seen or spoken to Pamela except Andre, even though she is supposed to be actively working on Lucious’ car-bombing case. She was conveniently a liaison, so despite him being in the room during Andre’s first encounter with her, Thirsty never interacted with her either.

Up until Cookie realized the DuBoises were targeting all of her boys, Andre has flown under the radar and not gotten the attention his brothers have gotten, despite the trauma of his being widowed and the guilt he feels over trying to kill his father. Now we see the damage these two highly stressful situations have done to his mind. I’m not a psychiatrist so I won’t speculate on what exactly has gone on with Andre, but I’m almost certain his road to recovery won’t be easy and he won’t be able to fake being fine anymore.

As for Hakeem, while I’d love to see him get his daughter back, something really major will have to happen for that to be a reality. It’s no secret that ‘Keem messed up big time by meeting with Diana. Cookie is only one person, Lucious isn’t himself, and his own brothers are out of commission dealing with their own catastrophes. Hakeem has also lost (and continues to alienate) his only other ally, Tiana. Hakeem has been known to do stupid things under pressure, so I’m not optimistic about his ability to get his daughter back through sheer cunning.

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But I’ve been wrong before.

What are you expecting out of this fall finale of Empire?